KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES OF EARLY BREASTFEEDING AND EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING AFTER BIRTH OF THE MOTHERS GIVING BIRTH AT HANOI OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY HOSPITAL

Abstract

Objective: To describe the real situation of knowledge, practices of early breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding after birth of the mothers giving birth at Hanoi Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in 2020. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study with a combination of quantitative and qualitative research. Subjects of the study were 290 mothers who gave birth at Hanoi Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in April 2020. The survey forms were used to collect information daily, then collected and made statistics. Results: The mothers were moslty at the age of 25-34, which accounted for 69.3%, up to 78.6% of the mothers who knew that early breastfeeding would provide the infants antibodies, 51.4% of them knew that the sooner their infants breastfed the better they were. And only 1.3% of them did not know about the concept of early breastfeeding. 73.1% of them achieved the knowledge about early breastfeeding, 46.9% of the mothers understood the concept of exclusive breastfeeding correctly. Only 33 .8% of them did practice of early breastfeeding within the first hour after birth. 53.8% of them showed that postpartum fatigue and pain hinders them from giving early breastfeeding. Only 14.5% of the mothers exclusively breastfed their infants at the time of discharge, and up to 85.5% of them gave their infants formula milk or other things apart from breastfeeding. Conclusion: Mother’s knowledge about breastfeeding is quite good. However, the practice of breastfeeding is still limited. It is necessary to strengthen counseling for mothers immediately after giving birth about early breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding and also promote the counseling role of health workers and communication channels further to help mothers gain more knowledge and practical skills in breastfeeding.